March 29
CALIFORNIA----death row inmate dies
San Quentin death row inmate dies of natural causes
A death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison died of natural causes at a
medical center in the community, California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation officials said Monday.
Bernard L. Hamilton, 64, was pronounced dead at 10:45 a.m. A San Diego County
jury sentenced Hamilton to death on March 2, 1981, for 2nd-degree burglary and
the 1st-degree murder of Eleanore Buchanan on May 31, 1979, corrections
officials said.
Hamilton kidnapped, murdered and dismembered Buchanan's body after she caught
him burglarizing her van, Robinson said. Hamilton also had a conviction for
burglary in 1973, and was on death row since March 4, 1981, according to
corrections officials.
Since 1978 when California reinstated the death penalty, 70 condemned inmates,
including Hamilton, have died of natural causes, 25 have committed suicide, 13
have been executed in California and 1 was executed in Missouri, 1 in Virginia,
8 have died of other causes and one cause of death is spending, according to
the CDCR.
There are 747 inmates on the state's death row, corrections officials said.
(source: San Francisco Examiner)
******************
Trial's penalty phase begins in killings of 4 at Valley Village memorial
gathering
A man who opened fire at a memorial event at a Valley Village restaurant,
killing 4 people and wounding 2 others, should be sent to death row, a
prosecutor said Monday, but a defense lawyer asked jurors to consider their
"individual morals" and spare the man's life.
Nerses Galstyan, 32, was convicted earlier this month of 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder for the shooting deaths of Vardan Tofalyan, 31, and Harut Baburyan, 28,
along with 1 count of 2nd-degree murder for the killing of Hayk Yegnanyan, 25,
and 1 count of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Sarkis Karadjian, 26.
A jury found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders,
making Galstyan eligible for a death sentence.
The 9-man, 3-woman jury is now charged with recommending whether the defendant
be put to death for the crimes or spend the rest of his life in prison.
Anticipating a defense argument that Galstyan had no prior convictions and
behaved well during his 6 years in jail awaiting trial, earning an education
certificate, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Chung told jurors none of that
"lessens the fact that he killed 4 people."
Chung also reminded the panel of 2 surviving victims, 1 of whom lost an eye.
The other has a bullet which remains lodged 2 inches from his spine, the
prosecutor said.
Galstyan was convicted of the attempted voluntary manslaughter of the 2 men.
"We're going to ask that you give him the death penalty," the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Alex Kessel told the jury panel it was enough that his client
would spend the rest of his life in prison.
"He'll never get out again," Kessel said.
Kessel said jurors had the opportunity to consider "your individual conscience,
your individual morals."
"Death is not appropriate," the defense attorney said, adding that the
voluntary manslaughter convictions - originally charged as attempted murders -
showed "a belief that there (were) issues of protection, self-defense" behind
the killings.
Galstyan "never had any acts of violence in his life,' prior to the shooting,
Kessel said. "My client doesn't deserve the death penalty."
Yegnanyan's mother took the stand and told jurors, "The whole world turned dark
and cold for me," when she learned her eldest son had died.
Under cross-examination, she described 2 of her son's tattoos as memorializing
the death of his stillborn daughter and 1 of his brothers, who had died as a
toddler. She said she had "never, ever seen him carrying a knife."
The younger sister of Baburyan said her brother had virtually raised her
following the death of her mother when she was 5 years old.
"He was my world, he was everything to me," Hermine Baburyan said.
Dealing with his death is "a daily struggle. I can't say it gets better," she
told jurors.
It was undisputed during trial that Galstyan shot and killed Yegnanyan,
Karadjian, Baburyan and Tofalyan, who was described as the defendant's best
friend, at the Hot Spot restaurant on April 3, 2010.
Kessel argued, however, that the shooting was carried out in self- defense. He
told jurors that Yegnanyan pulled a knife on Galstyan's brother, Sam, outside
the restaurant prior to the shooting.
Kessel said his client tried to defuse the situation by picking up Yegnanyan,
hoisting him over his shoulder and turning in circles before putting him down.
Yegnanyan then called Karadjian and Baburyan, who came armed to the memorial
gathering, according to Kessel.
"My client, Nerses Galstyan, was the one targeted that day," Kessel said,
telling the jury that Galstyan only fired when Karadjian pulled a gun on him.
Galstyan and his brother testified that Yegnanyan had been pressing Sam
Galstyan to run drugs through his motorcycle club, leading to escalating
tension between the 3 men.
But Deputy District Attorney Thomas Trainor insisted that Galstyan "walked in
ready to fire, bullet already in the chamber, no safety on." The prosecutor
said Galstyan "began firing as he walked in ... round after round after round
after round .. pausing to reload ... stopping only when he ran out of bullets."
Karadjian was "never able to chamber a round," according to Trainor.
After the shooting, the Galstyan brothers fled to a Seattle, Washington suburb,
where they were later arrested, because they were "2 scared guys looking for
"safety, not for sanctuary," Kessel said.
Sam Galstyan was not charged in connection with the shooting.
(source: mynewsla.com)
********************
Madera man's death sentence upheld in double-murder revenge killing
The California Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the death sentence
for a Madera man who committed a double-murder revenge killing with his son in
October 1995.
In his appeal, Pedro Rangel Jr., now 68, argued that he didn't get a fair trial
in Madera County Superior Court because many potential Hispanic jurors were
excluded from jury selection. He also contended that 2 jurors should have been
disqualified after they told trial Judge John W. DeGroot that they knew but
were not close friends with 2 prosecution witnesses - the mother and brother of
victim Chuck Durbin.
In addition, Rangel said 1 juror was considering a death sentence before
hearing any mitigating evidence.
But the high court said in a 54-page ruling that there was no evidence that any
racial or ethnic group was systematically excluded from jury selection. The
justices also said Rangel's attorney never objected to the lack of Hispanics
during the selection process, therefore Rangel forfeited his claim on appeal.
Regarding the 2 jurors who knew Durbin's relatives, the high court said,
DeGroot found no evidence that they would be biased against Rangel.
The justices also ruled that the juror who was leaning toward a death sentence
promised to hear mitigating evidence before making a decision whether to
recommend death or life in prison without parole.
Father and son were known as "Big Pete" and "Little Pete."
On the night of Oct. 7, 1995, Rangel and his then-23-year-old son, Pedro Rangel
III, went to the Madera home of Chuck Durbin to hunt down Juan Uribe. During
the elder Rangel's trial, the prosecution contended that the Rangels held Uribe
responsible for a grazing head wound the younger Rangel suffered in an earlier
altercation in Madera.
Court records say the younger Rangel said, "What's up, Juan Uribe? What's up
now?" right before the 23-year-old Uribe was shot multiple times. The elder
Rangel shot Durbin, 38, who was trying to protect his wife and 3 children, ages
7, 6 and 3, from the intruders. Durbin's wife, Cindy, however, was wounded in
the gunfire, court records say. Though the children were uninjured, 1 of them
saw their father get shot, the records said.
After the killings, the elder Rangel asked his stepdaughter's husband to
dispose of a basket containing clothes and weapons. Instead, the man showed
police "where the weapons were located," court records say.
The weapons were a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun, and a .22-caliber
semiautomatic rifle. Ballistics testing revealed that the .380-caliber bullets
found at the crime scene and in the getaway car had been fired from the
.380-caliber handgun. All 16 .22-caliber casings found at the crime scene had
been fired from the rifle. The rifle, or a similar weapon, had fired the
.22-caliber bullets recovered from Uribe's and Durbin's bodies, court records
say.
A day after the killings, father and son told others that "they had went and
done a shooting" and that "they shot the house up."
The elder Rangel also told his wife. According to court records, Mary Rangel
told her husband: "You're a murderer. And now my son is one, too."
The prosecution also introduced evidence that Rangel and his son tried to
create an alibi. They went to a convenience store owned by another
stepdaughter's boyfriend. They made a video on the store's security system to
show they were working. The tape was then altered to falsely show they were
working at the time of the killings, court records say.
Rangel and his son were tried separately.
Defendant could see from outside Durbin's house that several people were
inside, yet defendant continued with his plan to kill Uribe.
California Supreme Court ruling
A jury in October 1998 found the elder Rangel guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders. A week later, the
same jury recommended death.
At his sentencing in February 1999, DeGroot heard arguments to mitigate
Rangel's sentence to life in prison: he had no criminal record, was employed in
the community, and had a reputation for helping others. The judge also noted
testimony that Rangel had been intoxicated and stumbling the night of the
murders.
The judge also heard from Durbin's mother, Ginger Colwell, who told the judge
that her son didn't deserve to die.
DeGroot said, "Death was warranted" because Rangel didn't even know the Durbin
family.
In its ruling Monday, the high court said: "Substantial evidence supports the
jury's finding that the defendant premeditated Durbin's murder. The evidence
demonstrated defendant and his son armed themselves and went in search of Uribe
to kill him. They located Uribe at Durbin's house. Defendant could see from
outside Durbin's house that several people were inside, yet defendant continued
with his plan to kill Uribe."
Court records say the younger Rangel was convicted of the double murder by a
different jury and was sentenced in March 2000 to life in prison. His sentence,
however, was later reversed, and in a plea agreement was given a lesser prison
sentence. The younger Rangel died in October 2012 at the age of 37. He is
buried in Madera at Calvary Cemetery.
(source: Fresno Bee)
***********************
Jones defense team offers plea deal if DA drops death penalty effort
The legal team for a Fairfield man accused of the 2013 rape and murder of a
13-year-old girl lost out on their 2nd effort to get the death-penalty case
thrown out after raising claims of prosecutorial misconduct more than 2 months
ago.
Deputy Public Defender John Mendenhall, who is heading up the defense for
Anthony L. Jones, said Monday the failed effort had been spurred by efforts to
try to negotiate a plea deal in which Jones would plead to murder and related
charges if prosecutors give up on seeking the death penalty, settling instead
for Jones being sentenced to life in prison without possibility.
Jones is accused of kidnapping Genelle R. Conway-Allen as she walked home from
school on the afternoon of Jan. 31, 2013. Her nude body was discovered about 14
hours later on the morning of Feb. 1 in Allan Witt Park. Jones was arrested a
few days later and has been locked up since then.
Mendenhall, as he has done before while filing a multitude of defense motions
in the past three years, lamented to Judge E. Bradley Nelson that the case had
been "going on for so long." Mendenhall then said Nelson's rejection of claims
of prosecutorial misconduct would force the defense team to seek more delays
for a jury trial currently set to start in September.
The defense team in January claimed that Conway-Allen's mother she did not want
the death penalty for Jones, and that prosecutors knew of the mother's wishes.
Ray, after listening to Mendenhall's repeated claims that she was misleading
and evasive because she never reported the mother's alleged statements to the
defense team, said the claim was baseless, that no meeting with the mother in
which the death penalty was discussed had ever occurred and the defense
investigator's claims of what he was told was secondhand information that could
not be heard by jurors.
"How do you respond to something that did not happen?" Ray's fellow prosecutor
Susan Rados asked Nelson.
Mendenhall responded by once again bringing up the 2013 incident involving Ray
in which she received an email from the doctor who conducted the Conway-Allen
autopsy, opining that there was no rape but instead consensual sex.
Mendenhall said Ray's action in 2013 and the 2016 claims over the mom's alleged
statements proved Ray was guilty of a "pattern and practice of outrageous
government conduct" that merited the case being thrown out or at least dropping
the death penalty or bumping Ray from the case.
Nelson rejected the defense requests, saying it seemed likely the law would
preclude the mother's opinion, if she had made one, from being allowed before a
jury. Nelson went on to add that he had heard no evidence in the past 2 months
that supported the accusations Mendenhall raised against Ray.
Ray previously labeled the accusations as "slanderous."
Prosecutors and the defense team are expected to next return to court April 18
to argue other motions filed by the defense team, including 2 new motions filed
before Monday's hearing.
(source: Daily Republic)
*****************
Opening Statements Begin in Death Penalty Murder Trial----Darnell Williams, 25,
is accused of the killings Alaysha Carradine, 8, in Oakland and weeks later,
22-year-old Anthony Medearis in Berkeley.
A prosecutor Monday outlined his case against an Oakland man accused of killing
an 8-year-old girl and 22-year-old man in separate shootings in 2013, saying he
had a belief in street justice and retaliation that included "killing innocent
and defenseless people, including women and children."
Darnell Williams, 25, is accused of the killings of 8-year-old Alaysha
Carradine during a sleepover at an East Oakland home on July 17, 2013, then
22-year-old Anthony Medearis in Berkeley in an unrelated shooting 7 weeks
later. In his opening statement this morning in Williams' trial, prosecutor
John Brouhard said, "You'll see the aftermath of this defendant's rampage."
Brouhard said the shooting at an apartment in the 3400 block of Wilson Street
at about 11:15 p.m., which claimed Alaysha's life, wounded 2 other children and
a 63-year-old woman, was in retaliation for the shooting death of 26-year-old
Jermaine Davis in the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley about 4 hours
earlier.
Davis was a close friend of Williams, who allegedly wanted to kill Antiown
York, the man he thought had killed Davis, and fired shots into the apartment
on Wilson Street because York's ex-girlfriend, the mother of York's children,
lived there, Brouhard said. The mother wasn't home when Williams opened fire
but the shots struck Alaysha, York's 2 young children and their grandmother,
according to Brouhard.
Williams' case marks the 1st time in many years that the Alameda County
District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty. The last time the
office sought the death penalty was for David Mills, who was convicted of
murdering 3 people in a shooting in 2005 and killing a 4th person in a separate
case in 1997. Mills was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty in 2012.
Medearis was fatally shot in the 1400 block of Eighth Street in Berkeley in an
unrelated shooting at about 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2013.
In addition to 2 counts of murder for the deaths of Alaysha and Medearis,
Williams is charged with 3 counts of attempted murder for the shooting on July
17, 2013. Williams also faces 3 special circumstance allegations: committing
multiple murders, lying in wait in the shooting that claimed Alaysha's life and
killing Medearis during the course of an attempted robbery. Williams' lawyer
will present their opening statement later today.
(source: Bay City News)
****************
On this day: Serial killer Charles Manson sent to gas chamber; The notorious
killer was sentenced to death on 29 March, 1971, but the abolition of the death
penalty in California saw that commuted to life in prison.
One of the most notorious killers in living memory was sentenced to death on
this day 45 years ago. But a change in the law means that Charles Manson is
still alive today.
Manson started a cult known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune which
committed the murders of 9 people in the United States in the summer of 1969.
The most famous of the Manson Family victims was actress Sharon Tate, the wife
of film director Roman Polanski, who was killed in her home when she was just
weeks away from giving birth aged 26.
Manson and other members of the cult were found guilty of conspiracy to commit
the murders of 7 people, including Tate, and he was sentenced to death on March
29, 1971.
But in 1972, prior to his impending execution, Manson's death sentence was
automatically commuted to life imprisonment when a decision by the Supreme
Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty.
California's eventual reinstatement of capital punishment did not affect
Manson, who is currently serving nine concurrent life sentences at Corcoran
State Prison in Corcoran, California.
Manson will next be eligible for parole in 2026, when he will be 92-years-old.
The killer hit the headlines again in late 2014 when he was given permission to
marry a 26-year-old woman who had become infatuated with him in prison.
(source: dailyrecord.co.uk)
USA:
Report: Prosecutors Rarely Disciplined for Misconduct
Prosecutors are rarely held accountable for misconduct and mistakes that have
left innocent people imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit, according to
report Tuesday by a nonprofit group that investigates possible wrongful
convictions.
The Innocence Project's report coincides with the 5th anniversary of a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that overturned a $14 million judgment to a former death
row inmate who was convicted of murder after New Orleans prosecutors withheld
evidence from his defense lawyers.
In response to the ruling, researchers examined 660 criminal cases in Arizona,
California, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas where courts ruled there had been
prosecutorial misconduct. Their report found only 1 prosecutor had been
disciplined in any of those cases between 2004 and 2008. Convictions were
reversed in 133 of those 660 cases, the report said.
"There are almost no adequate systems in place to keep prosecutorial error and
misconduct in check and, in fact, prosecutors are rarely held accountable even
for intentional misconduct," the report says.
John Thompson was convicted in 1985 of killing hotel executive Raymond Liuzza
Jr. but exonerated after 14 years on death row. He successfully sued the New
Orleans district attorney's office, which had withheld blood test results that
excluded Thompson as the perpetrator in an attempted robbery. Prosecutors used
Thompson's conviction in the robbery case to help secure the death penalty in
the murder case.
Thompson's attorneys argued there was ample evidence that former Orleans Parish
District Attorney Harry Connick's office was deliberately indifferent to the
need for properly training, monitoring and supervising prosecutors.
But a divided Supreme Court overturned Thompson's $14 million award in 2011,
ruling that the New Orleans district attorney's office shouldn't be punished
for not specifically training prosecutors on their obligations to share
evidence that could prove a defendant's innocence.
The Innocence Project's report says the court's decision means prosecutors
"enjoy almost complete immunity from civil liability."
"Given their broad powers, it is critical that effective systems of
accountability are implemented to incentivize prosecutors to act within their
ethical and legal bound," the report adds.
(source: ABC news)
****************
Prosecutors: Defense move would extend death penalty appeal
Federal prosecutors in the death penalty appeal of a man who killed a
University of North Dakota student in 2003 say a request by defense attorneys
to withdraw from the case could be seen as a "disguised delay tactic."
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr's lawyers say a new defense team is needed because of
staffing and personnel changes in the federal system and the Minnesota federal
public defender's office.
Prosecutor Keith Reisenauer says in his response that he is opposed to the
change. He says granting the defense motion will likely postpone proceedings
for at least a year or more. The final appeal was filed more than 5 years ago.
Rodriguez, of Crookston, Minnesota, sits on death row in Terre Haute, Indiana,
for killing Dru Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota.
(source: Associated Press)
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